The pair announced the global partnership on Friday and said the services will be available to Australian customers immediately.

Under the arrangement, Krux’s technology will be used to divvy up and segment customer data and demographics from the online shopping sector Rakuten operates in, generating specific user groups and audiences for media buyers. The anonymised data being utilised comes from Rakuten’s 50 e-commerce and content provider subsidiaries globally and also includes mobile apps intelligence as well as third-party data.

In addition, Rakuten will work with clients on bringing their own first-party data into the mix, providing a combination of data sets in order to help advertisers conduct smarter targeting, audience modelling and user segmentation. Publishers, in turn, should increase the value of their inventory by demonstrating a better understanding of their audience to advertisers, the company said.

Rakuten Marketing Australia managing director, Anthony Capano, said the new capabilities will provide real-time, actionable insights that allow media buyers to conduct more targeted and relevant marketing across digital channels.

“It’s down to making marketing perform better across all channels and devices – that’s the end game for us,” he told CMO.

Rakuten Marketing will also work with Krux and its advertisers to create more sophisticated user profiles via the transactions tracked through existing campaigns.

“It’s about collecting the data, understanding behaviours and characteristics and then acting on those via audience segmentation,” Capano said.

Rakuten Marketing is the omni-channel division of Rakuten and focuses on performance marketing, affiliate marketing, display and retargeting. Local customers include AppliancesOnline, Saba, The Iconic and Masters.

“Partnering with an established DMP that can scale and drive results advances our data capabilities and makes stronger performing, personalisation targeting available to our clients,” Capano continued.

“For example, from a display advertiser’s perspective, who owns first-party data, Krux could segment and advertiser’s website, such as homepage visitors, versus those browsing four pages deep, versus new visitors. You could then target advertising campaigns specific to those groups.

“You could also overlay third-party data, such as that from Axciom, on top to identify look-a-like customers based on the first-party data segment.”

Rakuten’s global TV and video streaming service, Viki, is already leveraging the Krux platform to deliver personalised cross-device content and advertising experiences in real time, as well as the vendor’s audience management solution to target people who look similar to their most engaged segments.

“Our mission is to empower advertisers to engage consumers with more connected, more relevant and more impactful experiences – what we call the ‘omni experience’,” said Rakuten Marketing CEO, Tony Zito. “Leveraging rich consumer data across Rakuten plays a big role in making that mission a reality. Krux is a best-in-class partner for its global leadership in data management and its track record of delivering demonstrative marketing ROI.”

Krux CEO, Tom Chavez, said the two companies shared a vision of finding ways to make marketing more effective.

“We admire Rakuten’s global ambitions and efforts, and we’re thrilled to be the central data decision system powering all of Rakuten Marketing’s customer experiences across their marketing channels,” he said.

Australia’s cricketers captured the nation’s attention during their recent run to the semi-final of the ICC Men’s World Cup. While the tournament ultimately ended in defeat, for over a month it provoked a sense of belonging, hope and empowerment for millions of people across Australia. Cricket, and sport in general, has a near-unique ability to empower individuals, irrelevant of their background, demographic or nationality.

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